`Way Of Gun' Amusing Directorial Debut For Mcquarrie

September 08, 2000|By DEBORAH HORNBLOW; Courant Staff Writer

Anyone who saw ``The Usual Suspects'' would anticipate another original screenplay from Christopher McQuarrie, the talented young writer who won an Oscar for the script in 1996. Now in his debut as a feature film director, McQuarrie proves his eye is as keen -- and demanding -- as his ear.

In ``The Way of the Gun,'' McQuarrie delivers a refreshing and amusing kidnapping/road picture, a kind of neo-B film that belongs to the old-fashioned class of talking gangster Westerns. In lieu of special effects, explosions and stunts that fill cineplex action pics, McQuarrie's film pivots on character, dialogue and a shaggy-dog story about two kidnappers, a very pregnant woman and the rich people whose baby she's carrying.

The mix of old-time gunslinger drama and pure lunacy makes ``The Way of the Gun'' look like a cross between ``Blood Simple'' and a low-budget ``Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.'' If the film devolves into an unnecessarily sanguineous shootout-childbirth crescendo in a Mexican brothel, the getting there is vastly entertaining.

``The Way of the Gun'' picks up the story of two smalltime hoods, Benicio del Toro's laconic, James Dean-ian Longbaugh and Ryan Phillippe's more easy-going Parker. These guys long ago sussed what Parker, the narrator, calls the ``natural order'' of things. Faced with the option of choosing lives of ``petty crime or minimum wage,'' they ``stepped off the path.'' Their chosen course, a violation of the natural order, involves larceny, mayhem and murder, whatever's required to get what they need. ``Need is the ultimate monkey,'' Parker says. ``Keep your life simple and you can self-sustain.''

But the boys soon overstep themselves. They kidnap Juliette Lewis' conflicted Robin, a surrogate mother who is carrying a child for a very wealthy couple, the elderly Hale Chidduck (Scott Wilson) and his blond trophy wife Francesca (Kristin Lehman). Only after pulling off this caper do the boys discover that Mr. Chidduck has deep connections to the mob.

The cheeky outlaws up their ransom demand to $15 million, and the cat-and-mouse game is on. Chidduck, who is loathe to call the police or pay an amount of money that might need to be accounted for, sets his bodyguards, Taye Diggs' usurping Jeffers and Nicky Katt's robotic Obecks, on the job. Chidducks also calls on the services of his old friend Joe Sarno (James Caan), a ``bag man'' who has been loyal to Chidduck but, in a curiously false note, hasn't enjoyed even a whiff of his old buddy's obvious good fortune.

Because this is a McGuarrie script, things get wildly convoluted and there are plenty of surprise twists. Everybody's got an angle and a past. McGuarrie would have done better to flesh out the characters of his two principals, Parker and Longbaugh. Apart from a few scenes in which they make decisions that reflect character, they are far too generic.

The new director's pacing runs slack sometimes and never quite achieves the quality of taut suspense, but there is so much promise and the script is so much better than most that it's a pleasure to watch. McGuarrie is endlessly trying to invent instead of relying on formulas. His outlaws get their kidnapping idea while making donations at a sperm bank (Longbaugh's exchange with the donor screener is hilarious). Longbaugh studies childbirth on a videotape he plays inside a convenience store.

The script is also stoked with chewy lines (``I would never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul.'') and ironical remarks (``There's always plenty of free cheese in a mousetrap'') that are field days for actors.

Visually, McGuarrie proves equally ambitious and inventive. Following the kidnapping (during which we hear bullets flying but don't see the carnage until later), McGuarrie stages a terrific in-and-out car chase through an alley. All the special effects money in the world couldn't produce anything more entertaining.

Del Toro (``The Usual Suspects'') is charismatic as the quiet Longbaugh, an unfortunately underwritten role. Phillippe (``54'') brings a more ready tenderness to Parker, but again, the part could have been more dimensional.

Caan, whose Sarno eventually steals the picture, is terrific even if we've seen him play the old wise guy before. The great character actor Geoffrey Lewis also turns up memorably in the role of Abner, the suicidal side man who backs up Sarno. Joe Kraemer's soundtrack veers from Tex-Mex twang and Mexican cantina music to grand opera and adds enormously to the texture of the film and its mostly seedy locations.

THE WAY OF THE GUN is written and directed by Christopher McGuarrie. Cinematography by Dick Pope. Music by Joe Kraemer. Starring Benicio del Toro, Ryan Phillippe, Juliette Lewis and James Caan. Produced by Kenneth Kokin. An Artisan Entertainment film opening today at area cinemas. Running time: 119 minutes. Rated R for language, violence. * * *